Restaurant: Cinque Terre West Osteria
Location: 970 Monument St #110, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. (310) 454-0709
Date: December 7, 2019
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Solid neighborhood Italian
There are so few places to eat in Pacific Palisades and almost all of them are part of the Caruso mall with it’s terrible least common denominator food style.
This isn’t, and is off to the side in a mini-mall with my “favorite” local place, Sasebune express.
The interior is tiny but cute enough. A little casual for my taste.
The menu.
Bread.
Cinque Terre Salad. Baby mixed greens, taggiasche olives, tomatoes, grapes, figs, pecorino, fig vinaigrette.
Melanzane alla Disaia. Eggplant, marinara, Parmigiano, basil, mozzarella. Hard to not like baked eggplant with marinara and cheese. Hot and delicious.
Tartufo pizza. Mozzarellaa, goat cheese, black truffle. Not really much (if any) real truffle. Ok though. Not as good as the truffle pizza at Toscana.
Basic pasta for the boy.
Gluten free penne pomodoro. Because some people in my family (and not the boy) like really really boring food.
Pappardelle alla Bolognese. Very solid version of the classic. Nice thick fresh pasta.
Mezzelune alla Zucca. Butternut squash ravioli, brown butter, sage, Amaretto. Nice to see they included the Amaretto — makes it real Northern Italian style.
Grilled Branzino.
Macchiato.
Overall, not bad at all for the Palisades. Certainly the best Italian in the village. Of course that isn’t saying much as there are some real stinkers and the village has terrible food. Still, I’ll have to come back and see how it holds up and try more dishes.